Michigan mayor snubs meeting with Biden over Israel-Hamas war

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Those cease-fire calls stretch from city halls in Cleveland and Oakland to the mayor's office in Dearborn, Michigan.

  Laura Barron-Lopez has more.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Dearborn, Michigan, is home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the United States.

  Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the city's residents, many of whom have a personal connection to the region, have urged President Biden to endorse a cease-fire in Gaza. The "NewsHour" has learned the president is planning a trip to Michigan on Thursday to rally with United Auto Workers after they endorsed his reelection bid.

  The visit comes after Dearborn's mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, was one of several Arab American leaders who turned down a meeting with President Biden's campaign last week, and he joins me now.

  Mayor Hammoud, thanks so much for joining the "NewsHour."

  Biden's campaign manager visited Michigan recently and met with leaders of various constituencies across the state. Why did you choose to decline that invitation?

  Abdullah Hammoud, Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan: We chose to decline because I don't think this is the moment that calls for electoral politics.

  Palestinian lives should not be measured in polls. For us, this is a moment for our concerns to be heard, listened to, and for us to draft a new course together in terms of changing the direction of what's happening overseas. Those are conversations that need to be had with senior policy staff, with Cabinet members, not with campaign staff.

  When you send campaign staff as the first delegation to this community to meet with us for the first time, that sends a message that this is purely a political problem that you see.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Has the president's campaign reached out to you about this upcoming visit, and would you meet with him if they did?

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  At this point in time, I have not heard from any individual from Biden's administration.

  From my perspective, I'm one who firmly believes that community engagement can be powerful. When you come together to talk about policies, that can save lives. And so if the president or members of his administration, not his campaign, want to meet to talk about charting a new course together to fundamentally change the direction that they're currently on, to call for a cease-fire, to end the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children, that is a conversation that we're willing to have.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Mayor, there's no indication from the White House or from the president that he is going to change his position on Gaza and on Israel.

  So barring a call for a cease-fire, do you think that you and the voters that you represent can support him come November?

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  From our perspective, we don't like to categorize this issue strictly as it pertains to the upcoming elections, because it dehumanizes us.

  It lets us know again that all that matters are polls and outcomes. For us, more than anything, we understand that the stance that we have taken, one where we're demanding a cease-fire, is not one that's only relevant and important to Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. Frankly, this is the majority feeling for most of Americans across this country.

  Over 60 percent support a cease-fire. Over 80 percent of Democrats support a cease-fire. So we think this is the right path forward for any and all individuals seeking the highest office in the world.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Mayor, I understand that you say this is about more than elections, but I do want to ask you about Donald Trump , who appears headed for the GOP nomination for president, and he's made his stance on the war abundantly clear.

  Donald Trump , Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: When I'm back at the Oval Office, we will cut off every penny of money that we send to the Palestinians and the terrorists on day one.

  (Cheering and applause)

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So, faced with the choice of President Biden or former President Donald Trump , based on policies like what you just heard, who do you believe would best represent your constituents?

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  We have survived the Trump presidency four years ago, and I'm not blind to what is being said by Trump and other Republican candidates at the podium.

  But as it pertains to the decisions that are being made overseas, it seems like there's no real difference between President — former President Trump and current President Biden. For us, I have a value statement. I believe that no innocent man, woman or child should be killed. And I'm looking for the president that does not believe that that statement has a qualifier.

  I think that's a universal value that we should all adopt.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Mayor, respectfully, I know you said that you think there's no real difference, but the former President Trump has also floated religious tests for immigrants, has also said that he would reject Gazan refugees, something that the current president hasn't said.

  So, do you — what do you make of those policies that Trump says he would enact if he wins?

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  You know, I said there was no difference as it pertains to some of the decision-making that's happening right now in Gaza.

  From my perspective, Trump is not a candidate that I back. The question that you're asking me is actually a question that needs to be put back into the laps of the president. He is the candidate that is seeking the highest office in the world. So the question has to be put to him. What will he do to earn the trust and the respect of the constituency that he's trying to represent in that White House?

  That is a question that falls on the laps of the candidate. As somebody who's run for office, I don't look at the voters and say, you're at fault if I'm not elected to the office. As a candidate, I look in the mirror, I listen to the concerns of the majority of Americans in this nation at this point in time, 50 percent of which, by the way, also believe that what is unfolding is a genocide.

  And so that question has to be put to him as a candidate. How will you change course to listen and heed the concerns of your American voters today?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Mayor, what do you think your party and President Biden is not understanding or needs to fully understand about Muslim and Arab Americans in Michigan right now?

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  You know, we don't have to think about what it's like in Gaza today. We don't have to think about what it's like in many of the Arab countries that have bombs being dropped on a daily basis.

  We have lived through those moments. Many of my residents have had to dig up relatives from under the rubble after their residential towers have been bombed. They have had to bury loved ones. We have one resident who buried over 12 loved ones. We have another resident who hails from (inaudible) which is a village currently being ethnically cleansed, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the groundskeepers of the Masjid al Quds.

  And so, for us, we have lived through apartheid. We have lived through occupation. We have lived through being sieged and bombarded. And so for us, it's extremely personal. What we're asking from this president and anybody seeking higher office is to come to this community, listen to our stories, because we have the firsthand accounts of what it's like living under these conditions.

  And let's put the pen in both of our hands and let's construct and co-write this policy together about how we can usher a new foreign policy era for us as a nation. The days of endless wars in the Middle East have to close. We thought we closed that chapter, but that's not what's unfolding today.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, Michigan, thank you for your time.

• Abdullah Hammoud:

  Thank you.